Battery deployment continues to break records as prices fall / The global battery market is advancing rapidly as demand rises sharply and prices continue to decline. In 2024, as electric car sales rose by 25% to 17 million, annual battery demand surpassed 1 terawatt-hour (TWh) – a historic milestone. At the same time, the average price of a battery pack for a battery electric car dropped below USD 100 per kilowatt-hour, commonly thought of as a key threshold for competing on cost with conventional models. Cheaper battery minerals have been an important driver. Lithium prices, in particular, have dropped by more than 85% from their peak in 2022. However, rapid advancements in the battery industry itself are also supporting price declines. After years of investments, global battery manufacturing capacity reached 3 TWh in 2024, and the next five years could see another tripling of production capacity if all announced projects are built. (....)